Study of Interpersonal Communication and Its Impact on Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty to the Service Provider
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between interpersonal communication and customers’ loyalty to service provider
- To ascertain the relationship between the closeness of staffs’ relationships with customers and attitudinal loyalty to service provider
- To ascertain the relationship between interpersonal communication and customers’ satisfaction
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
CUSTOMER
Customers could best be described as those who use the output of work, the end users of products or services. They may be internal to the organisation such as the employees and directors or external like members of the public, other businesses, or government (DeiTumi, 2005). A customer is a person who buys goods or services from the service provider. It may also refer to any potential buyer( http://en.wikipedia.org). The word “custom” means “habit”, a person who goes to a store on a frequent basis to purchase their products or services, thus it is their habit to buy from that particular store. In the opinion of Peter Drucker, there are now a complete new breed of customers with high standards and expectations (Dei-Tumi, 2005). And as competition increases there is the need to devise creative and new ways of meeting the ever-increasing demands of the modern- day customer who is very sophisticated, knowledgeable, demands excellent products and services and has alternatives.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Customer service is an organization’s ability to supply their customers’ wants and needs (http://sbinfocanada.about.com). Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase. It also means serving the customer, and involves all contact with the customer, be it face-to-face, or indirect contact (i.e. dealing with complaint letters). Again, According to Jamier (2002), “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. Customer service can be expressed in personal and interpersonal skills such as communication skills, listening skills, language, gestures and posture, telephone techniques. According to Turban et al (2002), it is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service.
THE CUSTOMER PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY
Customer perceived service quality is the customers own perception of the service based on different factors contributing to the service, from the process to the final outcome. According to Grönroos (2001), “quality is what customers perceive”. Customers buying service consider everything that contributes to the process and the final outcome in making their assessments of the service. However the subjective assessment of the actual service experiences is the customer perceived service quality as pointed out by Looy et al (2003), Zeithaml et al (2006), and Grönroos (2001). Sureshchander et al (2002), points out that service firms have a difficulty envisioning and understanding what aspects of the service that define high quality to the consumers and at what levels, they are needed to be delivered. Also, that the aspect of managing a service interaction also requires understanding the complicated behaviour of employees that find its way into the customers perception of the service quality. On a careful inspection of the dimensions of quality, a major focus rests on the component of human interaction in the service delivery that consists of human behaviour and attitudes. Looy et al (2003) is also of the same opinion that customers are not onedimensional in judgment, because a lot of other factors influence service quality, most researchers agree on these dimensions of service quality as a measure of service quality. Tangibles: the appearance of physical facilities, the personal. The tools or equipment used to provide the service and communication material. In other words every material that is used to give tangibility to service. Reliability: this is the consistency of the service performance, which breeds dependability, from the first time the service is correctly performed to the ability of the firm to keep its promises. According to Zeithaml et al (2006),
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought interpersonal communication and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information interpersonal communication and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider. 200 staff of selected fast food in Asaba, Delta state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain interpersonal communication and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of interpersonal communication and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider
Summary
This study was on interpersonal communication and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to the service provider. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between interpersonal communication and customers’ loyalty to service provider, to ascertain the relationship between the closeness of staffs’ relationships with customers and attitudinal loyalty to service provider, to ascertain the relationship between interpersonal communication and customers’ satisfaction. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected fast food in Asaba, Deltat state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made of human resource managers, managers, cooks and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Interpersonal communication as a variant of interpersonal relationship has major positive influence on customer satisfaction and loyalty, in terms of it relevance in increasing the level of customer loyalty in fast food. It occurs not only when you simply interact with someone, but when you treat the other person as a unique human being, thereby helping in retaining customers towards increased profitability and marketing performance in the hotel industry. The relational style act as a driving motivation for consumers to engage in long-term relationships with service providers. Such benefits are expected to play important role in performance of hotel industry. Thus relational style as a consistent behavioural pattern with customers that fosters long-term business relationship helps in managing relations towards gaining competitive edge in the fast food
Recommendation
The quality of friendly interaction should be managed to avert defection. This suggests that there should be increase investment in training of customer contact employees to enable them acquire desired friendly interaction skills as important competitive tool in the hotel industry. As competitive pressure mount in the hotel marketing environment, effective marketing performance requires good interpersonal communication, adoption of effective relational style, sound development of relational atmosphere and ensuring quality friendly interaction towards improved productivity and gaining competitive edge
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